Sandy Continues to Damage Jersey Shore With Fire

Superstorm Sandy still isn’t done with the Jersey shore – investigators are blaming the storm for damaging electrical wiring that touched off last week’s devastating boardwalk fire in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.

And they said similar danger could be lurking elsewhere underneath other boardwalks, businesses or homes that were exposed to floodwaters from the storm last year.

“I’m sure on every boardwalk everywhere (at the Jersey shore), there may be compromised wiring,” Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said. “We don’t want to start a panic mode; we just want to be reasonable. If you’re a property owner and you think your electrical work came in contact with water and sand, we strongly recommend you have it inspected.”

Gov. Chris Christie’s administration decided the state will use Sandy-recovery money to pay for debris removal. He also pledged $15 million in Sandy money to help rebuild the burned businesses.

Christie said Tuesday the state will let businesses affected by the fire postpone filing sales and use tax returns that were due this month until Oct. 21 to help them recover.

The boardwalk fire began accidentally Thursday in aged wiring that had been compromised by salt water and sand during the Oct. 29 storm, federal and county investigators said Tuesday at a news conference. The wind-whipped blaze destroyed more than 50 businesses in the two towns.

Seaside Heights Mayor William Akers, reached after the briefing, said there is no issue with potentially compromised wiring on the surviving sections of the boardwalk.

“We did a total rebuild. All 16 blocks got all new wiring,” he said.

In Point Pleasant Beach, one of the approximately half-dozen Sandy-ravaged towns where businesses with electrical connections are located on the boardwalk, Mayor Vincent Barrella said streetlight wiring is all new in a section of the boardwalk that was rebuilt last winter.

But he said about half the boardwalk, including sections in front of businesses, still needs to be redone this winter. After the prosecutor issued his warning, Barrella said he instructed borough officials to work with the local electric company and identify any wiring that might need to be replaced as part of the upcoming work.

Flood-damaged wiring caused fires in several houses in Sandy-damaged communities once power was turned back on last November. Many homeowners had to replace their electrical wiring and main electrical boxes before moving back in.

Investigators said last week’s fire began in wiring that dated to the 1970s, and was located under a Kohr’s frozen custard stand and the Biscayne Candies shop last Thursday afternoon.

Jessica Gotthold, a senior special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said investigators located wires under the boardwalk that somehow came in contact with each other, causing an electrical arc that is believed to have started the fire. Coronato said those wires had been exposed to the storm surge and grating sand action of the storm, which compromised them.